Sensex, Nifty open flat; investors cautious ahead of RBI policy

Moneycontrol Bureau9:35 am FII View: Sakthi Siva of Credit Suisse says with India up strongly in recent weeks, a key question from investors is whether the 'Cheapest 4' continues to outperform the 'Expensive 4'. The answer is still Yes.
The 'Expensive 4' basket - India, Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines has underperformed MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan by 1.4 percent in 2017 so far, she adds.

While India's return on equity bottomed at 11.6 percent and has risen to 12.4 percent, she estimates implied return on equity to be as high as 17.7 percent.Also read - Buy, sell, hold: 7 stocks to watch out post Q3 results

9:15 am Market Check
Equity benchmarks started off Wednesday's trade on a cautious note ahead of outcome of two-day monetary policy committee meeting due later in the day.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 20.75 points at 28355.91 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 0.80 points at 8769.10.

Infosys, Wipro, BHEL, Hero Motocorp, TCS, ITC, Axis Bank, Hero Motocorp and UltraTech Cement were early losers while Tata Steel, Tata Motors, HUL, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Hindalco, Tech Mahindra and Cipla were gainers.The Indian rupee has opened marginally higher at 67.38 per dollar today versus previous close of 67.41.NS Venkatesh of Lakshmi Vilas Bank says the appreciation of the rupee over last two weeks was halted yesterday.The currency will take cues from the monetary policy and the movement of the equity market, he feels.He expects the USD-INR pair to trade in a range of 67.30-67.60/dollar today.Dollar index gained bolstered by technical buying after recent losses, as well as political uncertainty in Europe with a slew of elections this year.